New York's Newest Bookstore, Singularity&Co., Brings Sci-Fi Back From the Dead
By Martha Harbison Posted 08.10.2012

Much of the oldest and best science fiction stories and novels are, sadly, long out of print. The only way to read them is to dig through second-hand bookshops, rummage sales, or dusty attics, or hope that the local library still keeps their old paperbacks around. A group in Brooklyn called Singularity&Co. wants to change that. The attack is two-fold: raise some of these long-lost stories from their graves and release them as e-books, and showcase some really killer hardcovers and paperbacks at an honest-to-god brick-and-mortar bookstore near the East River. Being a dedicated sci-fi nerd, I felt obligated check it all out for myself at their grand opening last night.

Here are the basics. Singularity&Co. is a small, Kickstarter-funded start-up that aims to publish one out-of-print title a month, available for download on a variety of platforms. They’ve released two so far: A Plunge Into Space by Robert Cromie and The Torch by Jack Bechdolt. The work isn’t always easy--tracking down an authors’ estate, any copyright holders on the cover art and sometimes even scannable copies of the books themselves has proved challenging. For example, there are only seven known copies of what will eventually be the group’s (as yet unannounced) third book release, explained co-founder Ash Kalb, and he had to take a thousand-mile road trip to get a look at a pristine copy. I asked Kalb who his “dream authors” would be to be for the Singularity&Co. e-book project. He answered first with “Heinlein” but when pressed for something more obscure, he came out with New York City-native and Futurian, Cyril M. Kornbluth.
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It seems to me that you need a pretty huge population center just to be able to stay open in the used book business these days. I made the rounds of the shops in Boston last year, and it's pretty clear that the market is collapsing even there.

I hope that some of the college towns are managing to find the support to keep going. Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor expanded from one location to two while I was in college, but has now retracted back to only the original shop.

It seems to me that you need a pretty huge population center just to be able to stay open in the used book business these days. I made the rounds of the shops in Boston last year, and it's pretty clear that the market is collapsing even there.

I hope that some of the college towns are managing to find the support to keep going. Dawn Treader in Ann Arbor expanded from one location to two while I was in college, but has now retracted back to only the original shop.

We have a book store in Houston that specializes in only murder mysteries. They've been there since before I was born, and they recently got the space next door that used to be a silver shop. If it can support that, it can support anything.